PF TOOLS

Precision farming involving usage of several high tech equipment for collecting farm information for analysis, spatial modeling and subsequently application of input at the right amount, at right time, right location with the right technologies.

The following are technologies:

1- Remote sensing http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/precisionag/PrecisionAgReport.html

a) Several different approaches exist for using remote sensing data for this purpose. Most of the commonly recognized techniques depend of measuring the "greenness" of the field. Typically this is involves some relationship comparing the reflectance of a visible band (such as red light) to the reflectance of a near-IR band. Since green vegetation has a very sharp change in reflectivity across this range and other material do not, virtually any technique will in fact detect it. The approach suffers from several defects, for example it is a relative technique and can be significantly affected by soil conditions. We have pursued a different path in this research. We have examined the thermodynamic efficiency of the crop. The core of our approach depends on energy in the thermal-IR. Our experiment was to study the energy budget of the crops and demonstrate a relationship between multi-temporal thermal imagery and crop yield.


                                        source: http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/resourcesmag/hotstuff/spring00.html
b- Mapping Agriculture Crops

Today, a number of commercial satellite remote sensing companies are providing near real time remote sensing data which could use for mapping and monitoring agriculture crops.

i- Radarsat-2
In the field of agriculture, robust harvests and crop yields are challenged by the dynamic nature of soil and crop conditions that fluctuate throughout the growing season. Satellite imagery is an efficient method for mapping crop characteristics over large spatial areas and tracking temporal changes in soil and crop conditions.

http://www.radarsat2.info/application/agri/index.asp





ii. SPOT5
Satellite Remote Sensing Data from SPOT5 is another source of remote sensing data could be use for mapping and monitoring agriculture crops  for agricultural inventories, crop forecasts, monitoring crop health and soil moisture.

http://www.spotimage.com/web/en/201-agriculture.php













2- Soil Mapping (EC)

3- Geographical Information System (GIS)

4- Geographical Positioning System (GPS)

5- Variable Rate Technology (VRT)